Foreign Ministry official says EC report focused on policy alignment

NEWS 12.10.202209:55
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A senior Foreign Ministry official said on Wednesday that the latest European Commission report on Serbia will focus on the European Union’s desire to see Belgrade fully aligned with its foreign and security policies.

Ministry State Secretary Nemanja Starovic told the Serbian state TV (RTS) that alignment with EU policies, that is joining in the sanctions regime against Russia is “not fundamentally or even formally part of our obligations in the accession process, at least not in that way”. According to him, Serbia can’t join in the sanctions “because of a lot of political reasons” including political and economic security.

He said the entire report will be “marked with those tones” which he said is “a certain distortion of what it should be”. “People forget that we implemented constitutional changes and if those are not fundamental reforms which lead us to full EU membership, then I don’t know what fundamental reforms could be,” he said.